Episcopal Bishops Reject Dar es Salaam Communiqué
A couple of months ago, I went over to my old Seminary for a memorial organ concert. After the concert I had the opportunity to talk with the current dean of The Episcopal Divinity School, Bishop Charleston, and I remarked somewhat pointedly that while Gordon Conwell Seminary was now accepting Episcopalian and Anglican students, EDS may now have a niche market preparing people for ministry in the "new" church. The bishop actually seemed to agree with me if he didn't agree with the underlying presumption on my part that this was really a bad thing.
You have to put yourself in their place to really understaind the point of view they represent. The Episcopal Divinity School has come a long way since I graduated from ETS in 1968. Before I went there, it was the civil rights movement. While I was there, the Vietnam War was the great issue. When that was over, the ordination of women became the new issue, and now that the ordination of women is solidly accepted in the Episcopal Church, it is the gay and lesbian agenda which is the new issue. The seminary community sees itself as being in the forefront of these great social justice issues, and I believe it can quite rightly take pride in being on the right side of the first two: The Civil Rights Movement, and the Anti Vietnam War effort. Once they moved on from those issues, like rebels without a cause, they lost sight of the fact that justice for one group may entail injustice to another.
This is the current situation. They affirm that the ordination of women is a matter of justice, and they affirm that same-sex marriage is also a matter of justice. Bishop Charleston has launched out on some initiatives of his own aimed at achieving reconciliation. These are all well meant, and who can argue against the plea, comming from many sides, that ask, "Why can't we just get along?" In Massachusette, gay marriage is now the law, even though the Episcopal Church hasn't actually officially started doing it yet, but the justice issue is put quite simply, if the Commonwealth views this is a positive thing, why should people be thrown out of the church? The general view of things here is that the discussion is over on this issue, and we are moving on.
That, of course, does not satisfy everybody, and here is where the justice argument backfires. If you belong to a church that accepts the marriage of homosexuals, what if you don't happen to believe that to be in accord with Holy Scripture? The same was true with the ordination of women. If you belong to a church which ordains women, what if you don't happen to believe that women are called by God to be priests. Both issues effectively "un-church" the individual who can not assent to the new teaching. This is why it is a justice issue. It does no good to say that the fathers of the church in the past were mistaken and we now have a more enlightened point of view.
While the Episcopal Bishops express the desire to continue in the councils of the Anglican Communion, They have now rejected all external authority. Here is what they say to the Dar es Salaam proposal, "It is a very serious departure from our English Reformation heritage. It abandons the generous orthodoxy of our Prayer Book tradition. It sacrifices the emancipation of the laity for the exclusive leadership of high-ranking Bishops, and for the first time since our separationf from the papacy in the 16th century, it repalces the local governance of the Chrurch by its own people with the decidsions of a distant and unaccountable group of prelates." So the one thing that could pull the Episcopal Church back from the brink of separation from the Anglican Communion they have rejected with nothing but a wan appeal to be able to continue in the councils of the Communion. Of course they have made some important points here, but I would say that their rejection of the Dar es Salaam Comuniqué is a fatal mistake.
What the bishops of the Episcopal Church don't seem to realize is that dissatisfaction with the church's ability to correct doctrinal error has been widespread for many years. For the Bishops of the Episcopal Church to have quite a number of jurisdictions that left the Episcopal Church over the issue of the ordination of women is no great recommendation for their leadership in the direction of reconciliation. To have a large group of dissident congregations and even dioceses under the jurisdiction of African archbishops, as seems to be developing now is likewise no great claim to fame for their powers of reconciliation.
There is something in the Episcopal character that seems to think they can overcome any crisis through the grace of God. This stems from hubris, pure and simple. It is the attitude that we know better and that those who disagree with us, given time, will come around to our point of view. Katharine Jefferts Schori preached a interesting sermon in which whe talked about vision. Refering to the Rublev icon of the Trinity, she pointed out that each member of the trinity looks in a different direction. She went on to draw on her knowledge of biology to say that there are some kinds of fish that have eyes that are divided in such a way that they can look at things above the surface of the water and below the surface at the same time. She goes on to say that the blesser of the Gospel invites us into a deeper seeing. "When we have seen that blessing, however, briefly, it begins to rise into more easily visible depths, it comes more clearly into focus and into what we call 'normal reality.' ...To see as God sees is to bless what is into the reality of the (sic.) God's reign." There you have it. The expression of complete confidence that whatever the Episcopal Church perceives or believes, even it it seems unusual, is God's view of things. There is not even the slightest hint that the Episcopal Church might be mistaken.
Well, it is all very sad. The Episcopal Church is or was an important part of the Anglican Communion. Certainly the Anglican Communion will never be what it once was after this. One has to ask, will it be able to continue on in anything like the positive influence it has been so far? I think it could if it were to quickly gather back in the continuing churches alienated by the antics of the Episcopal Church. But that is probably too much to hope for.
C. David Burt
A couple of months ago, I went over to my old Seminary for a memorial organ concert. After the concert I had the opportunity to talk with the current dean of The Episcopal Divinity School, Bishop Charleston, and I remarked somewhat pointedly that while Gordon Conwell Seminary was now accepting Episcopalian and Anglican students, EDS may now have a niche market preparing people for ministry in the "new" church. The bishop actually seemed to agree with me if he didn't agree with the underlying presumption on my part that this was really a bad thing.
You have to put yourself in their place to really understaind the point of view they represent. The Episcopal Divinity School has come a long way since I graduated from ETS in 1968. Before I went there, it was the civil rights movement. While I was there, the Vietnam War was the great issue. When that was over, the ordination of women became the new issue, and now that the ordination of women is solidly accepted in the Episcopal Church, it is the gay and lesbian agenda which is the new issue. The seminary community sees itself as being in the forefront of these great social justice issues, and I believe it can quite rightly take pride in being on the right side of the first two: The Civil Rights Movement, and the Anti Vietnam War effort. Once they moved on from those issues, like rebels without a cause, they lost sight of the fact that justice for one group may entail injustice to another.
This is the current situation. They affirm that the ordination of women is a matter of justice, and they affirm that same-sex marriage is also a matter of justice. Bishop Charleston has launched out on some initiatives of his own aimed at achieving reconciliation. These are all well meant, and who can argue against the plea, comming from many sides, that ask, "Why can't we just get along?" In Massachusette, gay marriage is now the law, even though the Episcopal Church hasn't actually officially started doing it yet, but the justice issue is put quite simply, if the Commonwealth views this is a positive thing, why should people be thrown out of the church? The general view of things here is that the discussion is over on this issue, and we are moving on.
That, of course, does not satisfy everybody, and here is where the justice argument backfires. If you belong to a church that accepts the marriage of homosexuals, what if you don't happen to believe that to be in accord with Holy Scripture? The same was true with the ordination of women. If you belong to a church which ordains women, what if you don't happen to believe that women are called by God to be priests. Both issues effectively "un-church" the individual who can not assent to the new teaching. This is why it is a justice issue. It does no good to say that the fathers of the church in the past were mistaken and we now have a more enlightened point of view.
While the Episcopal Bishops express the desire to continue in the councils of the Anglican Communion, They have now rejected all external authority. Here is what they say to the Dar es Salaam proposal, "It is a very serious departure from our English Reformation heritage. It abandons the generous orthodoxy of our Prayer Book tradition. It sacrifices the emancipation of the laity for the exclusive leadership of high-ranking Bishops, and for the first time since our separationf from the papacy in the 16th century, it repalces the local governance of the Chrurch by its own people with the decidsions of a distant and unaccountable group of prelates." So the one thing that could pull the Episcopal Church back from the brink of separation from the Anglican Communion they have rejected with nothing but a wan appeal to be able to continue in the councils of the Communion. Of course they have made some important points here, but I would say that their rejection of the Dar es Salaam Comuniqué is a fatal mistake.
What the bishops of the Episcopal Church don't seem to realize is that dissatisfaction with the church's ability to correct doctrinal error has been widespread for many years. For the Bishops of the Episcopal Church to have quite a number of jurisdictions that left the Episcopal Church over the issue of the ordination of women is no great recommendation for their leadership in the direction of reconciliation. To have a large group of dissident congregations and even dioceses under the jurisdiction of African archbishops, as seems to be developing now is likewise no great claim to fame for their powers of reconciliation.
There is something in the Episcopal character that seems to think they can overcome any crisis through the grace of God. This stems from hubris, pure and simple. It is the attitude that we know better and that those who disagree with us, given time, will come around to our point of view. Katharine Jefferts Schori preached a interesting sermon in which whe talked about vision. Refering to the Rublev icon of the Trinity, she pointed out that each member of the trinity looks in a different direction. She went on to draw on her knowledge of biology to say that there are some kinds of fish that have eyes that are divided in such a way that they can look at things above the surface of the water and below the surface at the same time. She goes on to say that the blesser of the Gospel invites us into a deeper seeing. "When we have seen that blessing, however, briefly, it begins to rise into more easily visible depths, it comes more clearly into focus and into what we call 'normal reality.' ...To see as God sees is to bless what is into the reality of the (sic.) God's reign." There you have it. The expression of complete confidence that whatever the Episcopal Church perceives or believes, even it it seems unusual, is God's view of things. There is not even the slightest hint that the Episcopal Church might be mistaken.
Well, it is all very sad. The Episcopal Church is or was an important part of the Anglican Communion. Certainly the Anglican Communion will never be what it once was after this. One has to ask, will it be able to continue on in anything like the positive influence it has been so far? I think it could if it were to quickly gather back in the continuing churches alienated by the antics of the Episcopal Church. But that is probably too much to hope for.
C. David Burt
posted by C. David Burt | 8:09 AM
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